Benefits of starting off your career in customer support

If you can point out one team that could handle the same amount of frustration from customers apart from the Sales Team, what would it be?

In my opinion, it is the Technical Support Team, the unsung heroes of every company.

https://helpcrunch.com/blog/customer-service-memes/

Jokes apart, most people think providing support is just about answering questions which is a very wrong assumption. It is more like having a pani-puri in your mouth, one in your hand, one in your bowl and the pani-puri guy standing in front of you with another one ready all at the same time – now that is real stress. Despite all this, these are the only bunch of people that know the product inside out. In some cases, they know better than the engineer working and that is one skill that the other customer facing teams also need to have that will drastically improve customer experience.

But, why?

First, and the most obvious reason, is customer convenience. It is as simple as the executive person answering the question themselves rather than depending on the support team and all that unnecessary back and forth.

Better chances of closing opportunities takes #2 position. The customer would naturally choose to go with someone who knows what they are selling rather than depending on someone who in turn depends on someone else to get the job done.

Addressing the constantly changing customer requirement after sale – one cannot expect the customer to stick to the same set up they had at the time of sale. When they come to you with a different set up in mind, knowing the product will help you help them then and there (PS: this works like a charm, every single time!).

Helps the marketing teams understand customer emotions – only when you are fully aware of the expectations can you market the right way.

Such a skill cannot just result from classroom training. One needs to spend a lot of time answering support questions on different mediums to master it. Occasionally, let the sales, customer success and marketing teams take care of support channels for a few hours. Or, any new person joining the company can get into their actual role after a couple of weeks. This was a great way of learning when I got onboarded into new products, and can vouch for it. If you have done so too, feel free to let us know!

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Written By - Chameli Kuduva, Founder - SaaS Insider